NAIROBI, Kenya, May 15 – A man whose job it once was to sleuth out criminal intent using clues left on the dead bodies that found their way onto his slab, could now find himself behind the very same bars he helped put others, when he served as Chief Government Pathologist.

Moses Njue Gachoki who retired from his government job in 2010 is facing charges for nothing less than robbing the dead of their body parts in what the authorities believe, was to cover up a crime after going into private practice for himself.

Gachoki and son Lemuel Mureithi acting as pathologist and assistant pathologist respectively, are accused of relieving the deceased Timothy Mwandi Muumbo of his heart and various other organs without consent three years ago.

Gachoki who was arraigned at the Milimani Law Courts on Tuesday has denied the charge and was released on a Sh300,000 cash bail with trial set for July 3 and summons issued for his son to take plea.

They are also jointly accused of destroying the organs in an effort to avoid criminal prosecution on being discovered.

If the account of the authorities is to be believed, the two very nearly got away with helping the youngest widow of 70-year-old Muumbo, cover up the circumstances of his death.

And if it wasn’t for the suspicion of the deceased’s children, the evidence of their alleged crimes would have remained dead and buried.

The hurried, murky manner in which Muumbo’s body was embalmed and reports of a confrontation at the deceased’s home before he was reported to have suffered a heart attack, caused the family to seek out an exhumation.

It was then, at a postmortem at which Gachoki’s successor was present, that it was discovered that the late Muumbo suffered defensive wounds and was buried without his heart, which would have served as the ‘star witness’ to the heart attack he’d reportedly suffered at the time of his death.